Given the state of current affairs, what with the ongoing trials of the January 6 rioters and the bluster and frankly disgusting pandering of our former president to the far right, this is a very timely book.
The author presents an interesting story of his infiltration of the Oath Keepers. He describes their beliefs, schemes, and plots. Thankfully, they end up appearing as a rather inept group of neer-do-wells. God help the country if they were actually led by people with their heads together.
I hesitate to say that I enjoyed reading this, it actually made me angry and disappointed that their are groups like the Oath Keepers today. And that they are being courted by current politicians.
The author is a very good writer. I tried to read between the lines of his writing, thinking that he was leaving out a lot of information....perhaps because he will be testifying further against these organizations. At least, I hope so!
Good luck to the author and his family. I hope they are able to put this period behind them and enjoy their lives.

3/5 Stars for "The Perils of Extremism"

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC of this book.

This book was more than just okay, though I did have some issues with it.

From a writing style/mechanics perspective, this is extremely well written (a testiment to its author, a seasoned journalist). Try as I may, even for an ARC, I couldn't find anything glaring from a mechanics perspective to knock this book down. For me, where the book falls apart is the content.

To the author's credit, they lived a life full of adventure and personal growth. From deep embeddment in the Oath Keepers, to becoming a true practioner, to overcoming depression, to writing a harrowing tale warding folks away from extremism, this is nothing boring about what is in this book. To me, the issue is that this wasn't a long enough novel to fully encapture their experience in a way that grabs the audience.

To avoid any true spoilers, we jump around through Jason's time with the Oath Keeprs at various incidents that they were involved in. Though the timeline of these events is very straightforward, it feels choppy and disjointed. We're over at this incident, something interesting is happening, but now we're over here doing this. I'm not sure if there was any level of sequestering or NDA agreement based on Jason's testimony during criminal preceedings that may have limited the full scope of what he was able to disclose, but I found myself wanting more at every step of the book. And because of this, it was extremely hard to become invested.

Further, this presents itself as wanting to encourage folks to break free or steer clear from extremism. However, (based on a digital copy so no page numbers) up until about 87% of the way complete with the book, this goes into more about exploits WITH the extremists than breaking away. There is little over 30 minutes left in the book to really sell the true message of this.

I thought, as a fan of American history, that this was a neat idea. It was mechanically well written. But, I personally think that 260ish pages was not enough for the author to share the half of what they hoped to explain to their readers.

Given the well-written nature, interesting topic, and promise of the book, I am giving this a 3/5 stars. Check it out and share what you think!